The once-successful relationship between Belmont Park's Tom Lochtefeld and the city has collapsed, leading to last month’s closure of the historic Plunge pool. A bankruptcy hearing set for June 30 is likely to end with Lochtefeld on the outside looking in and Belmont Park’s future in question.

janfrederick

egieszl

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:25 PM

It's not supposed to make sense. You're dealing with the San Diego city council. A bunch of illogical politicians who are more concerned about the short term and continuing their path of spending money they don't have.

The cities are so short for cash that they're attacking anyone or any business that might potentially have any even if it means they'll put them out of business. The city doesn't care. If Belmont Park closes then plan B is likely to sell the property for a one-time cash infusion to patch the cities spending problem.

Look at California's recent attempt to sell the OC Fairgrounds property. Fortunately, the sale was recently shot down by a California appeals court based on the fact that the sale process was flawed and no appraisal was done to learn the fair market value of the property. Amazing!

A politician today cares about today only, not tomorrow.

Anyone with common sense can see the value that Belmont Park brings to the San Diego area. Years ago politicians viewed it as an eye sore and came up with a city backed plan to renew it. Now that its successful, the politicians today want to either rape it or tear it down. They're just undoing the great work of their predecessors and welcoming back the eye-sore.

Jason Hammond

rollergator

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 8:28 PM

....and if you look at the recent history of parks closed for "valuable beachfront real estate", you'll see that MBP and MSAP are both sitting on idle vacant land. Now THAT certainly generates tax revenue... ;)

Jason Hammond

Tekwardo

Thursday, June 23, 2011 1:19 PM

The Pavilion was the only reason people went down town. If you go to MB now, town is empty, a wasteland. They wanted to make it more 'family friendly' when the only things Family Friendly were the amusement park and ripley's attractions. Now it's so 'family friendly' that there is a full on adult book store down town across from the old Pavilion lot.